Badass Budget Build

Finally got all my parts. Heres a list of specs/prices if interested:

i5 3570K- 180$
CM 212 Evo - 30$
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H- 105
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB- 80$
Kingston HyperX Blu 1600 8GB - 40$
MSI Twin Frozr III 7850- 215$

Subtotal: $650

Parts:



Out with the old:



I will continually update this as the day and build progress. Thanks to everyone who gave input/advice on parts and combinations!

After:


I know its hard to tell the difference. After all, the case is the same. But if you see my ghetto duct tape job due to my fan issues, its def different. Less colors, as I'm using black SATA ones provided as I feel it provides a better match with this board. Did some "cable management" too: I duct taped a lot of unsleeved cables that I have in there. And if you noticed, theres a red light now! In essence the inside of my case now is black/blue with a red hue. Vastly different than before.

Things I love:
-Few issues with build/setup aside from USB 3.0 fiasco
-New rig. Performance thus far has been spectacular
-Error code right on MOBO! I used to have a diagnostic card for this, and in fact was gonna buy a new one before I learned its all on the board now. How freakin awesome is that! Plus, a power button right on there for open case work? I know these are little things that most boards have now a days, but going from my 5 year old gigabyte these new little changes make a HUGE DIFFERENCE in terms of convenience in diagnosing problems


Issues I ran into:

-SSD - didn't fully grasp that I couldn't mount it until I took it out of the case. Despite it being in nothing more than a thin piece of plastic, I still foolishly believed there'd be an included way to mount. Obviously not. Furthermore, my rails for installing my HDD/DVD/Floppy do not fit the holes on the drive. As of now, its duct taped inside the case
-USB 3.0 drivers missing during install. Had to fish out an old USB->PS2 converter. Then I used the on screen keyboard with the mouse. This was odd, as I thought ivy allowed for native 3.0. Oh well
-212 EVO- I measured inside the case, and knew it would fit. What I Didn't take into account was the fan on my side panel. This thing is so freakin big that I had to take the fan off my side panel. As you can see its currently a ghetto fix with duct tape to keep the mesh cover on there. Better than a gaping hole in my case I guess. Plus installing this thing was a pain, and I dont know if I seated/coated with AS5 100%, but my temps have been fine so I guess its good.
-Had the same old gigabyte boot problem. Boots, shuts down, then boots again. If I hadn't used my last board for years and wasn't already aware of gigabytes penchant for this, I probably woulda freaked. As it stands though, I knew my last rig was working well when it booted in such a manner. if it DIDN"T is when we had problems. This new board has not done this since the first power on, but just something I noticed


Things still left to do:

-Install sound card and 5.1 surround sound speakers
-Replace aging loud 120mm case fans
-Replace the ghetto fix jobs done with duct tape (side panel, SSD, sleeving)
-Buy a new PSU in the future. This ones 5 years old and while it still works, has SO MANY CABLES that it really brings me down
-New Case: my case is still functioning fine, but at this point its got a lot of stuff I dont need. Mainly that top "info" panel that is completely useless as it provides horribly inaccurate temperatures and fan speeds. This means it has literally dozens of stupid, huge, thick ass sensor/usb headers/etc that I NEVER use, that get stuffed on top of my DVD drive. If I figure out how to get rid of that I'd be golden.

-Overclock and undervolt!

Thanks amigo. My builds are always about bang/buck. Considering I OC (though not to an extreme like some people), I get further value for the parts I choose. Also like it to be "future proof" for a few years, or rather, not have to upgrade it. We all know future proofing is a myth, so its more being able to 'get by' new games with your hardware.

If anyone has any OC'ing advice for the card or proc i'm more than happy to listen! My rig that died was a different kind of OC'ing (locked multi) and just so ancient by todays standards that I wanna make sure I'm doing it right. Changing MULTI and voltage, but not touching the bus frequencies (for now), correct? Just multi overclocking?

My ram I also have had to overclock already, as the board defaults the ram at 1333 vs its listed 1600. I think this is just an inherent shortcoming of the board (or chipset) though, and not a real problem.

GPU i'm assuming is similar how its always been.

Thanks to any who gave input and expressed interest!